Shadowed
by elenathehun
Summary: Lin and Tenzin, growing up in the city on the edge of tomorrow. Featuring special guest appearances by Bumi, Kya, and cactus juice.


Title: Shadowed  
Summary: Lin and Tenzin, growing up in the city on the edge of tomorrow. Featuring special guest appearances by Bumi, Kya, and cactus juice.

/

The night before Tenzin's _yantra_ ceremony, Lin scares the hell out of him by walking into the meditation chambers in the Temple on Air Island barefoot and soaking wet. Barefoot he could understand, but soaking wet…? "What the _hell_, Lin," he hisses at her as quietly as he can. "I'm on a spiritual retreat, what are you doing here? And why are you wet?"

As usual, Lin doesn't bother answering. She just grins and grabs his elbow and drags him up with her iron grip. Not for the first time, Tenzin curses the fact that Lin is still so much stronger and taller than him; his mother claims he's still got some growing to do still, but she's been saying that since he turned fifteen and it hasn't happened yet. Against Lin, who would be tall even as a man and is strong for an earthbender, he can offer no resistance at all.

It's for the best that he's an airbender, perhaps. Offering resistance is not their way.

"Well, I got Sokka drunk on cactus juice and convinced him to show me his new motorboat, and then after he showed me how it worked, I steered it to the docks here to pick you up…but I ran into Kya on the way in and had to fight my way past her first," Lin said, absolutely shameless. Tenzin tried not to twitch at that; knowing Lin and Kya, she'd probably detoured specifically to fight her – and knowing his older sister, she had enthusiastically returned fire, so to speak. "And then your Mom showed up, coincidentally at the same time as a large tidal way. Luckily, she was so busy dragging your uncle behind her that—"

Tenzin just holds up a hand and sighs. "-you had enough time to hide underground and let Kya take the blame."

Lin doesn't say either way, but Tenzin has seen these fights play out a million times already, so he's probably right. If Lin were wearing shoes, she would have been caught with the rest of them, but barefoot, she has enough warning from nearly any movement in her range. Tenzin is the only exception to her earthsense, and this is probably the reason Lin has consistently chosen him as partner in team bending battles since he could reliably call the wind. Anyway, this doesn't answer his initial question at all, which was –

"Yeah, great, why are you here?" he hisses at her again as she pulls his arm nearly out of his socket. Lin rolls her eyes, irritated.

"I should think it would be obvious, fleetfeet," and she gives him a shake for good measure. "I'm here to take you out for drinks!"

hr

Getting back to the mainland is a simple as hopping on the metal raft Sokka (or more likely, Toph) created and revving up the engine attached to the back. Lin steers it herself; Tenzin can't quite tell, but her stance looks like a version of the stance used by the earthbenders in Ba Sing Se to guide the trains, but it's been modified in some way, become more fluid-

"Swampbenders," Lin says simply, and cracks a grin. "Hey, I saw the look on your face. As soon as your uncle showed me his newest baby, I thought of the swampbenders near Gaoling. I can't go as fast, obviously, since I'm moving the metal towards the shore and not using the water itself, but it works."

And it does. On the starboard side, they pass the statue of his father the Fire Nation sent to the city on the fiftieth anniversary of the war's end. Tenzin looks at it as they pass and thinks, as he always does, of how painfully _young_ his father looks. Lin notes where he's looking and changes her stance slightly, and suddenly, they're going a whole lot faster. Saltwater spray goes up his nose, and Tenzin sneezes helplessly as Lin snickers. Of _course_ she'd figure out a way to go faster.

Tenzin has half a mind to fly back home.

hr

Republic City was already big when Tenzin was born, and it seems like he's spent his whole life just watching the city grow larger. He doesn't remember a time when it wasn't filled with tall metal buildings and short squat stone houses, without the bridges spanning the bay and the island his father made, decades ago, with the pagoda the Fire Lord's architects built for free. Neither does Lin, who is a spare decade older than him – but she spent more of her childhood actually here, with her mother, so she knows all the good parts hidden out of the way. Drinking with Lin means drinking in the Old City, and it doesn't escape Tenzin's notice that it's the only section of the city predominately built of wood.

The bar Lin takes him is a fire trap; Tenzin wouldn't ordinarily notice, but Bumi is sitting at the bar waving at them, and no matter how safely a building has been constructed, Bumi's presence on the premises automatically converts it to a fire and explosion hazard. Tenzin can't count the number of times airbending has saved his life when one of his older brother's experiments had gone awry.

Actually, that's a lie. Tenzin can and will count the number of times airbending has saved him from Bumi's explosions, starting with the first when he was six and managed to get blown out of their shared room and fall three stories, only to land lightly on his feet. Bumi wasn't so lucky that time, not that it ever stopped him in the future.

"Tenzin!" Bumi yells over the crowd. "Get over here, bro, I wanna buy you a drink! In fact, the next round's on me, guys, it's not every day a guy's kid brother makes master!" The atmosphere in the bar is extremely agreeable after that, and Tenzin finds himself hustled up front by a dozen new friends. His brother stinks of alcohol, but that doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. He could be three sheets to the wind, or he could have just gotten off work.

As soon as he gets within two feet of his brother, he's swept into a bear hug. Lin is laughing at him, he _knows_ she's laughing at him, but what does she know? She's an only child. And, well, he _is_ glad to see Bumi.

"I'm glad you're here," he says honestly, and Bumi grins even wider.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, bro! 'Sides, I'm between jobs right now, so it was pretty easy to hitch a ride home. How's everyone been?"

Lin doesn't bother to hide her smile as she passes him a cup of warm sake.

hr

The second bar "sucks", as Bumi says, so they only stay for one round before moving on to "this totally authentic Ba Sing Se-style noodle stand, I swear" before moving on to bar three. The noodles _are_ really good, although the only person who can vouch for their authenticity is Lin and the three workmen slurping away before the night shift starts. Tenzin, Lin, and Bumi all sit crammed together at the stand and eat quickly, and Tenzin is pretty sure Lin is nudging him in the ribs with her elbow on purpose, although he can't tell for what reason. The pork noodles she's eating smell pretty good, but the seaweed broth he's eating is really almost as good as mom's. Bumi is on his second bowl – spicy chicken, from the smell of the fragrant steam wafting Tenzin's way.

"…so anyway, the dam on the Gaipan is about as good as it's going to get. I advised the town council to move upland, but considering they've been flooded out three times in the last half century, they probably won't listen to me. Earth Kingdom! So stubborn, eh, Linny?"

" 'Eh, Linny', yourself, Water Tribe," she sniffs, then gulps down some broth. "But yeah, Gaipan isn't known for their smarts. Where's your next job at, anyway?"

Bumi grins. "You'll love it, Lin. The University at Ba Sing Se is holding a symposium on air travel. Everyone who is anyone in the field has been invited– I think Teo from the Northern Air Temple is going to present the keynote on the applications of large-scale fixed wing aircraft."

Lin's eyes widen. "Really? Isn't _that_ interesting – I may have to finagle an invitation..."

Bumi winks at her, and not for the first time Tenzin wants the wind to sweep him away. Why does his brother have to just _be_ this way? "I'll do you one better: come with me as my plus-one. I know you have some leave saved up, why not come with me? One of your buds from university can put us up."

"Oh, Bumi, you always know the nicest things to say to me," Lin sighs with a playfully sultry smile, fluttering her eyelashes exaggeratedly. Tenzin can feel his ears flushing and hopes Lin doesn't notice. A futile hope, really. Lin's got eyes sharper than a messenger hawk and can scent weakness better than a shirshu.

hr

The third bar has a lot of really fruity sweet drinks, but by that point, Tenzin doesn't care, and neither does Bumi. Lin wastes no time in mocking them for their "feminine" choices. Tenzin can't figure it out, but Lin has always had a very conflicted relationship with her gender. He's not sure if he should attribute that to her training in Ba Sing Se, which from all accounts is still a very conservative and stultifying place, or to-

Tenzin doesn't notice he's speaking out loud until Lin socks him in the kidney. It hurts like hell, and it's perfectly understandable that he blows her through the next three walls with a reactive air blast. Anyone would do the same.

hr

The fourth bar kicks them out within a half hour. Well, it's more like the bartender earthbends the fight outside the bar, and they couldn't get back in after they won. In Bumi's defense, guys from the Northern Water Tribe _were_ wussies who couldn't even wipe their noses without asking permission from their mommas. Those guys should just accept their place in life and move on – there were really better things to fight about, although Tenzin couldn't think of them right then.

Tenzin keeps giggling and sagging against his brother, while Lin lectures the waterbenders on the importance of a good stance when bending. Her captive audience isn't paying much attention, though: they've been sunk neck-deep into the road, and most of them look pretty dazed. Tenzin can only think they need a remedial waterbending lesson from his mother if their water whips are going to be that sloppy.

"Ooh, I think that's a burn, bro," Bumi says agreeably, and Tenzin realizes he must be talking out loud again. Lin just snorts and starts lecturing Tenzin, all _you don't have any room to talk, fleetfeet, you wouldn't know a good stance if it ran up and sat on you, blah blah blah Lin is the best so deal with it_ as they amble off to bar number five , a smoky affair that serves absinthe with a spoon. Not bad, but the anise flavor is a bit strong for him. Lin is ranting like a madwoman – something about foreign benders with nothing better to do than pick a fight with some harmless friends out for a night on the town, which then segues into a rant about the triads, messing up her beautiful city and harassing her cute little innocent citizens, which somehow turns into a rant about his sister. Bumi leans downs and mutters into Tenzin's ears that this always happens when Lin gets drunk enough, but honestly, Tenzin can't really tell the difference between Lin's rants when she's drunk versus sober. It all sounds the same to him. For some reason, they always end on how Kya is the center of all evil in the universe.

Tenzin yawns and Lin cuts her rant short to stare at him, horrified. "Are you kidding me? Seriously, are you kidding me? It's not even two in the morning!"

Bumi just shrugs lazily before swinging Tenzin on his back. "Well, at this point, it's either exhaustion…_or boredom_."

Lin's eyes narrow. "Oh no you didn't," she says warningly.

"Oh, I think I did." Tenzin giggles and gives a nod of assent from behind Bumi's shoulder. The night is already starting to pick up, judging from the look on Lin's face.

hr

Everything after the sixth bar specializing in cactus juice is a muzzy blank, punctuated by images with no sound – Bumi talking, faced lined like a much older man; Lin staring up at the stars, hands clasped behind her back; sitting on Fire Lord Zuko's outstretched arm, the eternal flame flaring higher with the wind he's calling up.

Tenzin wakes up the next morning on the bay, curled up with his head on Lin's shoulder. His brother is nearby, muttering as he digs up shellfish for breakfast. The light is bright, the sea smells strongly of salt and seaweed, and Tenzin has a moment of intense nausea before he leans over and vomits on the sand. Luckily, Bumi comes over and gives him something that tastes really _quenchy_ (is that even a real word?) before waking Lin up for breakfast.

He barely makes it to his _yantra_ ceremony on time. Luckily, he's still so drunk that he doesn't notice all the important guests muttering censoriously. Nor, for that matter, does he actually feel the pain of being tattooed. He won't for three days, at which point the hangover and the inflammation combined will keep him in bed for a week and convince him to never drink again.

His mother swears she'll skin his brother alive. His father doesn't mind at all. Lin just thinks mission accomplished.

hr

Author's Note: I'm not really sure how to firm up Tenzin and Lin's ages (Tenzin's lack of hair is throwing me off), but I think that Lin is actually a contemporary of Tenzin's older brother and sister, rather than him. I've set this maybe twenty years pre-series; Tenzin is in his late teens/early twenties, Bumi and Lin are in their late twenties/early thirties. Aang is going to die in three years: in my head, he never met Pema - and given the ages of their kids, he definitely never lived to see his airbending grandchildren. This was going to be a more serious work touching in the issues of benders vs. non-benders in Republic City, but then Bumi worked his way in, and it is, after all, a celebration of adulthood for Tenzin. I might write a companion to this with the same characters (plus Kya?) touching on the issues of the interregnum between Aang's death and Korra taking on her responsiblities as an adult Avatar. Alternately, Kya, Bumi, and Lin take him out for a bachelor's party, then wake up the next morning in Omashu, missing the groom and one day to go until the wedding.

It really depends on how badly my head-canon is jossed by the creators.

Some other notes: A _yantra_ ceremony isn't a very good equivalent, but there doesn't seem to be many tattoo ceremonies in Buddhism. If someone can offer a better equivalent, I'd be grateful for the tip. In my head, Lin Bei Fong went to University at Ba Sing Se - it was the only place her mother wouldn't follow her during her rebellious stage. The Avatar world's stage of development is around the 1890's/1900's, which means Bumi is making money hand over fist as an engineering consultant. See Calvin Coolidge's early career for an example of what I mean.


End file.
